Pokie meltdown: $65k jackpot turns out to be machine glitch

Andrew Korner
Journalist
Andrew was born and bred in Ipswich and has been at the QT since 2007. After starting out on the country rounds, he moved onto court reporting and then police and emergency services, which he has now been covering for the last three years. When he is not working on police rounds Andrew is busy sifting through the garbage of famous people, in search of ideas for his weekly column, the Naughty Korner. As there are very few famous people in Ipswich, Andrew is often forced to write his column about...

According to the Gaming Machine Act 1991, a gaming machine employee has the right to refuse a payout if they are satisfied a displayed win on a pokie machine has been caused by a malfunction.

Mrs Jahnke is challenging the club's refusal to pay, and the matter will be referred to the Licensed Monitoring Operator (LMO) for a review.

Goodna Services Club president Robert Lucas yesterday released a statement saying that the club's actions with regards to poker machines was strictly controlled.

"As soon as staff became aware of the malfunction, they followed correct procedure, shut the machine down and immediately reported the irregularity to the licensed monitoring operator, Odyssey, who in turn reported it to Queensland Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR), as is required under the Gaming Machine Act 1991," Mr Lucas said.

The club says it also explained the situation to Mrs Jahnke and paid her back the remaining credit she had in the machine prior to the malfunction.